Simulations of electron transport for fast ignition using LSP

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 544; no. 1; pp. 61 - 66
• Main Authors: Town, R.P.J., Chen, C., Cottrill, L.A., Key, M.H., Kruer, W.L., Langdon, A.B., Lasinski, B.F., Snavely, R.A., Still, C.H., Tabak, M., Welch, D.R., Wilks, S.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 21-05-2005
• Subjects: Fast ignition; Intense-particle beams; Laser light absorption in plasmas; Plasma simulation; Plasma simulation; 52.57.Kk; Laser light absorption in plasmas; Fast ignition; Intense-particle beams; 52.38Dx; 52.59−f; 52.65.−y
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2005.01.194

A crucial issue for the viability of the fast ignition approach to inertial fusion energy is the transport of the ignition pulse energy from the critical surface to the high-density compressed fuel. Experiments have characterized this transport through the interaction of short pulse, high intensity lasers with solid-density targets containing thin
K
α
fluorescence layers. These experiments show a reasonably well-collimated beam, although with a significantly larger radius than the incident laser beam. We report on LSP calculations of these experiments, which show reasonable agreement with the experimental observations.